This invention relates to vehicle article carriers, and more particularly to a vehicle article carrier adapted to be used on a cab of a vehicle such as a pickup truck, which includes a slidably extendable article carrying subassembly for carrying elongated items such as canoes, kayaks, lumber, etc.
Vehicle article carriers are used on a variety of vehicles to carry objects that are either impossible or cumbersome to carry within the interior area of the vehicle. With vehicles such as pickup trucks, which have a very short roof area over the cab portion of the vehicle, the overall longitudinal length of the vehicle article carrier is quite limited. When attempting to transport elongated items such as canoes, kayaks, and other items which have an overall length longer than the roof of the cab, the relatively short, overall longitudinal length of the vehicle article carrier makes it generally unsuitable for transporting such items. Thus, these items must typically be transported in the bed of the of the pickup truck, thus making the bed unavailable for heavier items which may not be suitable for transporting on the roof of the cab of the vehicle.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide some form of vehicle article carrier which includes a sub-assembly which can be extended to effectively increase the overall longitudinal length of the vehicle article carrier to better support elongated items.
It would also be desirable if such a vehicle article carrier as described immediately above could be constructed which does not significantly complicate the construction of the vehicle article carrier, does not significantly increase its weight or otherwise complicate the use of the vehicle article carrier when the article carrying sub-assembly is in its retracted position.
The above and other objects are provided by a vehicle article carrier in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. In one preferred form, the vehicle article carrier comprises a pair of side rails which are secured to a roof of a cab of a vehicle such as a pickup truck extending fore-to-aft on the roof of the cab. Each of the side rails includes a channel for slidably supporting an extendable article carrier sub-assembly. The article carrier sub-assembly can be positioned in a retracted orientation in which it does not extend outwardly of the side rails, and which thus provides the appearance of an otherwise conventional vehicle article carrier assembly. However, when the article carrier sub-assembly is moved into its extended position, the overall effective length of the vehicle article carrier is increased significantly to enable the vehicle article carrier to better accommodate elongated items such as canoes, kayaks, bicycles, and other items having a length which exceeds the length of the roof of the cab of the vehicle. The vehicle article carrier may include an optional, fixed front cross bar to provide still another support point for better supporting elongated articles.
In one preferred embodiment the article carrier sub-assembly includes a pair of parallel disposed longitudinal frame members and a pair of perpendicularly arranged cross bars. The cross bars and the frame members are secured together by a pair of front-end supports a pair of rear-end supports. The front-end supports each include a tap-plate assembly for locking the article carrying sub-assembly in a desired longitudinal position along the side rails. A plurality of guide members are associated with each front-end support for supporting each front-end support slidably on its associated side rail. A pair of fixably disposed support wheels are mounted on each one of the rear-end foot supports of the side rails and form two additional support points for better supporting the article carrying sub-assembly when the sub-assembly is in its fully extended position.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.